Dolphin's Playground

by Jaci Burton

  She bit her lip to keep from begging him to touch her clit, to send her over the edge. Her episode earlier with the bullet vibrator did nothing to assuage her hunger for release. If anything, it only heightened her sexual senses to the point where the slightest movement of his hand against her pussy would shoot her off like a rocket.

  “Do you enjoy my touch?”

  His words, whispered against her ear, were like a soft caress. She shivered.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want more?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then touch me, Jaz. Reach behind you and touch me.”

  She did, gladly, eager to palm his hard shaft. He rocked forward, pressing his erection against her hand. She cupped him, sliding her fingers over denim and wishing it would magically disappear so she could feel his hot, hard length in her hand.

  “Do you want my cock in your pussy?”

  She closed her eyes, her mind awash in images of just that. Trey hovering over her, spreading her legs wide and lifting her hips. His gaze would be glued to hers. She’d want to watch his eyes, watch them darken when he slid inside her.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, I want you.”

  “No. Tell me what you want, Jaz. Tell me exactly what you want.”

  He tortured her, making her say it when he knew damn well what she wanted. She’d never been vocal during sex. The men she’d been with previously hadn’t wanted to hear what she liked.

  Sex had been quiet, in and out, she thought with a laugh. No talking, nothing like this burning inferno of heat that Trey had conjured up inside her.

  His desire for her frightened her and excited her at the same time. She shouldn’t do this with a stranger. Definitely not with a professional colleague.

  But she wanted it. Now, here, just like this. And she wanted to tell him exactly how.

  “I want your cock in my pussy, Trey. Fuck me.”

  He laughed then, a husky rumble that tripped through her senses, making her shiver, making her want, making her need him.

  She turned, ready to face him, ready to beg him to take her right here, right now.

  Then she froze at the sound of footsteps outside.

  “Shit!” was Trey’s whispered response to the sound.

  She quickly moved away, righting her clothes and hoping like hell she didn’t wear a telltale blush on her cheeks. Her lips felt swollen from his deep kisses, her body on fire and so near completion she could finish herself off in seconds.

  She quickly glanced his way, only to find him sitting on a stool, his face buried in the microscope.

  By the time four of her lab assistants entered the room, she was head down in her own research. She just hoped she looked more innocent than she felt.

  “Wow, you two are at it early this morning,” Bob, one of her lab assistants said as he strolled in.

  He had no idea how close they’d come to really being at it. She nodded and tried for a smile. “Thought we’d get a head start.”

  Head start? Hell, she hadn’t been to sleep yet. She glanced at the clock and realized it was already five in the morning.

  She’d just spent the night with Trey Sanders, only not in the way she’d wanted to.

  Chapter Five

  “Are you insane?” Dane flapped his fin and communicated in the squeaks and sounds of dolphin language. Trey really needed a friendly ear, and one of his guardian brothers was as friendly as it was going to get in this hostile land environment.

  He couldn’t believe what he’d almost done with Jaz. “Yes, apparently I am. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “So, you’re telling me you had a chance to have sex with the hot redhead and you blew it?”

  Not quite the kind of ear he wanted. “No. I’m telling you I almost fucked her and that’s why I’m insane.”

  “Okay, I’m a little confused here. The bad thing is you almost fucked her. Meaning you’re glad you didn’t finish what you’d started?”

  Sometimes Dane irritated the hell out of him. “The bad thing is that I almost fucked her. I shouldn’t have touched her.”

  “Why the hell not? From what you told me, she was more than eager to do it.”

  “She was.”

  “Then, what’s the problem?”

  Trey rolled his eyes. “The problem is I don’t want to fuck her.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’re supposed to be helping me!”

  “How can I help you if you don’t make sense?” Dane dove down and came back up, spraying water in Trey’s face.

  “Cut that out, dammit!”

  “Hey, I have a solution,” Dane said.

  “What?”

  “Trade places with me. You swim around in the aquarium, and I’ll go fuck the nice doctor.”

  He leveled a glare at the dolphin. “You’re an asshole, Dane.”

  “So you’ve told me.” He winked at Trey, then chattered noisily.

  “Would you stop that? Someone will hear you.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  Someone had heard. Jaz. Damn. He whirled around and offered an innocent smile. “Just talking to the dolphin.”

  She crossed her arms and lifted a brow, then approached him, her tennis-shoed feet squishing in the water-clogged walkway. “You were talking, the dolphin was chattering. You make a habit of having conversations with mammals?”

  “As often as I can. They typically provide more intelligent responses than humans.”

  Her lips quirked. “I don’t disagree with you there. I’d much rather talk to them than the people around here. However, they usually don’t talk back.”

  “Sure they do. You’re just not listening.”

  Jaz tilted her head as if she seriously considered his words. He really needed to be more careful with what he said around her.

  She brushed past him and grabbed the bucket, tossing a squid piece to Dane, who greedily ate and then put his snout under her hand.

  With gentle strokes, she caressed Dane’s back. Trey followed the movements of her hand, mesmerized by her gentle touch, remembering what it felt like when she petted him that way. He had a sudden urge to switch places with Dane.

  “Have you studied dolphin language?” she asked.

  He tore his gaze away from her hands and met her curious sea-green eyes. “Actually I have.”

  “They have a syntactic or hierarchic communication system. I’ve done a bit of studying myself. It’s quite easy to communicate with dolphins, in a crude fashion, of course. Mainly hand signals and learning their vocal responses to certain stimuli.”

  Uh huh. He had no idea what she was saying, because his mind was elsewhere. The morning sun hadn’t yet broken through, leaving a distinct chill in the fog-enshrouded air. She hadn’t zipped her jacket. And he already knew she wore no bra under that flimsy top. Her nipples peaked hard underneath the shirt. His cock still ached from their near-encounter in the lab a couple hours ago.

  “Am I boring you?”

  He cleared his head of thoughts of her naked and lying on one of the lab tables, and said, “Sorry. My brain is a little fuzzy. Add lack of sleep to the jet lag from the trip yesterday.”

  She blushed at his mention of lack of sleep. Obviously, she was thinking the same thing he was—exactly what they’d been doing while neither of them were sleeping. “No, I’m sorry. I should have forced you to go to bed last night.”

  “So, you like to dominate?”

  “Not at all! Oh…oh, you meant…”

  She sucked in her bottom lip. He traced that lip with his thumb. “You’re going to have to quit blushing if you’re going to work around me, Jaz. I always say what’s on my mind.”

  She took a quick step back. “I’m not blushing. It’s the wind.”

  He looked toward the ocean. “There’s no breeze.”

  “It’s cold.”

  “I can tell.” He made a point of looking down at her chest, causing her cheeks to pinken fur
ther. “Like I said, I always say what I think.”

  “Want to know what I think?” she asked.

  “Sure.”

  “I think you’re dangerous. And I think I need to go take a shower and get a little sleep. See you later, Dr. Sanders.”

  “It’s Trey,” he said, but she was already walking swiftly away.

  “Smooth move there, Casanova.”

  “Fuck off, Dane.” Trey stormed away, intent on getting a little sleep himself. Dane’s dolphin laughter resounded in the quiet morning.

  * * * * *

  Jaz stretched and looked at the clock, grimacing at the red numbers glaring back at her.

  Noon. She’d gotten five hours of sleep. At least they were five good hours. She’d crashed and slept like the dead, refusing to let her mind dwell on the dolphins or on Trey and what she’d almost done with him last night.

  Almost? Hell, if her assistants hadn’t gotten an early start and walked in on them, she’d have gladly dropped her pants and spread her legs. She’d been so damned eager to feel his cock inside her she’d have begged if necessary.

  Rolling over and stretching, the cool sheets scraped against her sensitive nipples. Her mind wandered to remembrances of Trey’s fingers on her breasts. Her pussy dampened and she longed to reach down and massage away the throbbing arousal building there.

  But not now. She had no time to while away extra minutes pleasuring herself. But she’d damn well do that later to take the edge off. The last thing she needed right now was to drool on Trey while they were trying to work together.

  She stepped into the shower, hoping the hot water would rinse away any desire she felt for him.

  Unfortunately, the water in the apartment next door turned on at the same time.

  Trey was in his shower, too. Oh, God, why couldn’t she screw her head on straight about him? She barely knew him, and yet almost had sex with him. That kind of behavior wasn’t her at all. She rarely had time for men and relationships, and she sure didn’t want one with Trey Sanders.

  But thoughts of him standing in his shower shot through her mind. Naked, his body glistening with soap and droplets of water. Would he touch himself? Stroke that fabulous cock until it got hard, pumping faster and faster until he shot a hard stream of come against the tile wall? Would he think of her as he did it?

  He was probably thinking about blood poisons and possible bacterial infections related to the dolphins. Surely not about her. Sometimes her own stupidity astounded her. She poured soap into her hands, determined to wash away every image of him.

  How would his hands feel running down her legs, feeling her calves, the soles of her feet?

  No! Stop, stop, stop! She rinsed off and then lathered her hair, breaking into song to keep her dirty little mind occupied elsewhere and off visuals of a certain doctor’s sexy, naked ass.

  By the time she’d dried her hair and put it up on top of her head, she felt much more assured that she could, in fact, handle working around Trey. After all, she had all those vibrators that gave her such pleasure. She could anticipate their touch, not his.

  She had just slipped into her shorts and tank top when a knock sounded at her door. She opened it to find the man who occupied her mind standing there with a grin on his face. His clean, just-showered scent blew in with the breeze, making her mouth water. His hair was still damp, one wavy, raven lock falling over his forehead. She balled her hands into fists to keep from reaching out and sweeping it away from his face.

  “I heard your shower going , so figured you were up and moving about. Ready to get started?”

  “Sure,” she said with as confident an air as she could muster. Bound and determined to think only about her job, she said, “I want to check on the dolphins first. I’ll meet you at the lab.”

  “I’ll come with you. I want to check their appearance, temperature and skin tone today.”

  Great. He was like a leech, sucking onto her and tagging along wherever she went. How was she supposed to think about having sex with her vibrators when a living, breathing man with a cock followed her around?

  She’d just ignore him. When they arrived at the tank, she slid into her wetsuit and climbed into the pool, checking all the dolphins.

  “No change here. No improvement, but at least they haven’t gotten worse.”

  Trey had donned his wetsuit and stood over one of the dolphins, petting its skin. “Same here. So whatever the problem, it’s slow acting.”

  “I wonder how long they’ve shown symptoms?”

  “About a month before they beached.”

  She stilled and looked up at him. “How would you know that?”

  He stared back at her for a few long seconds, then said, “Just a guess. From the looks of their skin and the level of toxins in their bodies, I’d say whatever it is has been working on their internal systems for about that long.”

  “Oh.” He’d seemed so assured about the time frame. How odd.

  “Maybe we should take some coral samples,” he said.

  “Coral samples? Why?”

  “Because if the coral is affected somehow, they may emit a toxin. It’s been known to happen.”

  “I haven’t seen any evidence of pollutants in the area or bleaching of the coral.”

  “Nevertheless, it bears a sample or two. I’ll go collect some and meet you at the lab.”

  She nodded and he took off quickly toward the supply station to grab a sample kit. Funny, he didn’t take a mask, fins or tank. How close did he think the coral was? She was about to try and catch up with him, but then figured he’d end up coming back when he remembered he didn’t have a tank.

  Jaz turned back to the dolphins, expecting to hear the gate open any second. But when she didn’t, she stood on the edge of the aquarium rim, looking over the fence toward the beach.

  Trey was gone. Not on his way back, either.

  That’s odd. She stepped out of the tank and headed down to the beach, searching for him.

  She must have stood there a good half hour. No sight of him. Now she was beginning to worry. Surely he wouldn’t dive without a tank. The water was murky, the coral located quite a distance down. No way he could get there, grab samples and get back up without needing a breath.

  He must have changed his mind and gone to the lab or his apartment. Maybe he was going to dive later in the day. Feeling more than a little stupid, she was about to turn and head back to the lab when something bobbed out of the water.

  It was Trey. A chill shivered up her spine as she watched him walk out of the surf.

  He paused when he saw her, then smiled. “Success. Got a few samples. There’s a bit of bleaching on a crop of coral down there.”

  “How far down there?”

  “A ways.”

  He started to walk past her but she grabbed his arm, noting how warm his skin below the short-sleeved wetsuit felt to the touch. She’d been in these waters a lot. They were cold. Her teeth usually chattered by the time she surfaced. His body temperature was normal, which wasn’t…normal.

  “Wait a second. Do you realize how long you were down there?”

  “No. I didn’t have a watch on.”

  “Over a half hour.”

  He rolled his eyes at her. “I think you’re wrong. I couldn’t have been down there that long.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m not wearing a tank.”

  “And why is that?”

  He shrugged, the wetsuit clinging tight against his broad chest. She ignored the pull of attraction.

  “Because I didn’t need one. I looked at the underwater maps of the area. I knew how far down I had to go and I was in a hurry. Didn’t need a tank.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Trey,” she said, walking quickly beside him as he headed toward the aquarium. “No one goes into those waters without an air tank. How could you even see without a mask?”

  “I’ve got great underwater vision. And I can hold my breath for a long time.”

  “N
ot that long. Not for a half hour. No human can.”

  He paused and turned to her, his blue-eyed gaze focused on her face. She squirmed a bit, but held her ground, waiting for him to say something. “Okay, you got me. I’m an underwater superman, posing as a mild mannered marine scientist.”

  “You’re full of shit.”

  “So I’ve been told.” He walked away, hollering something about changing before meeting her in the lab.

  She stood there, her mind whirling with questions and feeling stupid for even thinking the things she was thinking.

  There was something strange about Triton Sanders. Something that didn’t sit right with her sense of logic. Damned if she knew whether it was the scientist in her, or the woman in her, that found him so compelling and enigmatic.

  But she was determined to find out more about him. Starting tonight.

  Chapter Six

  “Would you like to have dinner at my place tonight?”

  Trey looked up from the printouts of yesterday’s lab results, certain he’d heard Jaz wrong. “Dinner? At your place?”

  She offered a half smile that he wanted to lick from her lips. “Did I not say it loud enough?”

  “I heard you. But why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why dinner?”

  She shrugged and turned away. “Just thought it would give us a chance to get better acquainted. Maybe go over some of the tests we ran today.”

  They were alone in the lab, the rest of the staff already gone for the day. Trey had worked diligently, forcing his mind to focus on research instead of on Jaz, where it sure as hell didn’t belong.

  And now she wanted him over for dinner? Considering the chemistry between them, that could only spell disaster.

  “I can cook, you know.”

  He’d bet she could, in more ways than one. He shifted against the heaviness pulling in his groin. Unable to come up with a reasonable enough excuse to say no, he nodded and smiled. “Sure. Dinner at your place. What time?”

  Jaz glanced up at the clock. “It’s five-thirty now. How about eight? I have a few things to finish up here and then I’ll go start dinner.”

  Several hours later, Trey stood at the door to Jaz’s apartment, a bottle of wine and a bouquet of wildflowers in his hand.